York vs Internet Millers Review

Vs: Yorkie Bars
Location: York - Heslington Lane (University Sports Centre)

Kick Off: 10:30am
Kit: Away Kit, Black IMFC shirt, White IMFC Shorts, Black IMFC Socks.
Score: Internet Millers won 6:0

Scorers:

S.Burns (4)

J.Roebuck (2)

Squad
=====
1. Shark

2. Jebu

3. Denti
4. Burnsy
5. Duds
6. JV

7. Dan
8. Steve R
9. Simon
10. Mark M
11. Copey

12. Paul El
13. Chris Grist

Starting Formation and Tactics

Despite the lack of midfielders the Internet Millers still went for their usual 352 formation. Shark started in the net with Paul EL, Mark M and Denti commanding the back line. Dan took an anchor role in the centre of the park alongside Steve R with Duds pushed up from the back to play in the centre of the park and add some extra steel. New recruit JV retained his place at right wing back after an impressive second half performance at Scunthorpe and youngster Symon was given the LWB role.

First Half

The game started extremely fast for the Internet Millers. York had put two of their slower players in at centre back and IMFC were exploiting this with some quick through balls into the channels and behind the defence. There was a few minutes of IMFC pressure with a couple of dangerous Dan corners almost producing the first goal. However, it was a massive kick up field from Shark that bounced once and over the defence that Burnsy latched onto and rocketed home passed the keeper to make it 1:0.

York swapped one of their players out of centre defence and into the net to try and curb the Millers attacks.

However, Not more than 5 minutes later the ball dropped loose about 50 yards out that Jebu picked up from deep, after racing on to just outside the box Jebu fired a low hard drive right into the bottom corner of the net to make it 2:0.

A wicked corner swung in by Dan saw Jebu loose his marker and head over as the Millers piled on more pressure. The pressure paid as Burnsy made it 3-0 after only 25 minutes. The ball was fed into Jebu by Steve R, he turned and slipped Burnsy in. With just one defender behind him S.Burns did a sharp turn, pushed it past the defender and fired hard and low past the keeper to secure his brace.

York had a couple of players in the centre of the park that looked comfortable on the ball and if given time could pick some excellent passes. The infamous Mr Handball was looking York’s best player but his long range passes were being handled with ease by the back 3 who gave the York strikers no room to work with.

With confidence flowing, IMFC almost scored what would have been their best passing goal of the season. From defence the ball was patiently passed about to find an opening, it was knocked into Steve R in the centre of the park who switched play to JV. He beat his man and then passed down into the right channel. Jebu chased into the channel and as numerous defenders approached he cheekily backheeled the ball right into the path of a bursting Burnsy. Unfortunately, Burnsy struck the keepers’ feet with his shot but it was a fantastic move by everyone in the team.

With about 40 minutes gone the game was completely wrapped up when some nice passing between the defence got fed into the middle of the park to Jebu who dropped deep. With a number of defenders pushing out of defence to follow the striker, Jebu curled a pass over the shoulder of the last defender into the path of a great Burns run. A neat first touch allowed Burnsy to knock the ball over the outcoming keeper, control again and then calmly stroke into the back of the net for his second consecutive first half hatrick.

In a completely friendly game with no fouls at all up to this point the game had a most out of character incident that led to the ref blowing for half time early. Denti and the York striker both went in full blooded to a tackle that caught our esteemed defender in the nether regions, with fire in his eyes Denti unleashed a rather scathing tackle on the unfortunate match ball which didn’t go down too well with the nearby York player. I wont go into all the details but Denti got pinned down, a few of their lads swung a few punches, a few of our lads sent a few of theirs flying and the incident ended with an headbut to one of their lads. After speaking with the referee after the game in the pub (who is a proper conference ref) he said he would have sent 2 of their lads off and 2 of ours. As it was we all shook hands and made two enforced substitutions and the game went to half time.

Half Time: York City 0:4 Internet Millers

Second Half

With the ref concerned at the game spiralling into a fight he need not worry. Once again the game continued with barely any fouls that just go to show how out of character with the game the one incident was.

Burnsy made the game 5:0 from an header from the corner. The ball was wipped in by Dan and Burnsy headed low towards the back post. In a Kieran Dyer style effort the defender on the line watched the ball go past him into the net to the jeers of his fellow team mates.

Jebu, who had dropped into midfield for the second half made the game 6:0 with a left foot shot from the edge of the box into the top corner. He picked the ball up from midfield and burst forward into the box. A nice spin by Grist lost him his marker and Jebu tried to slip the ball into the young striker. The defender just covered the ball but Grist did well to win possession back and laid the ball back to Jebu on the edge of the box to strike home for his brace.

The game ended rather abruptly with about 20 minutes left as both sides agreed to keep the score as it was after one of the York lads got his foot stuck in the mud and fell over. This dislocated his ankle and fractured his foot. We all spent some time comforting the lad and some quick thinking from Kim ordered an ambulance that arrived in quickly. We wish the lad the best in his recovery and we received a nice email off his brother thanking us for looking after him at the time.

Full Time: York City 0:6 Internet Millers

Post Match Comments

What a strange game that was. I think the most important thing to say after the game is that we wish the lad who hurt his leg a speedy recovery. Incidents like that make the bust up before half time pale into insignificance. The brawl just before half time was nasty but no one person is to blame, there was provocation, aggression and physical presence off a number of players from both sides and whereas I don’t condone our behaviour I think we can learn from it.

The game itself was pretty much one sided. The first half myself and Burnsy really felt like we ripped apart the York defence whenever we went forward as a team. Given our lack of numbers in midfield and a light injury to Steve R I thought the midfield did superb in controlling the majority of the game. Defensively second half I know a few of the defenders felt the York players could have got through a few times as runners were not picked up from deep, but I never felt in any great danger of conceding and at 5:0 the game was over.

Overall its an hard one to say, we hit the ball long a few too many times but when we passed the ball we looked very good going forward. The high ball into channels was very effective in this game so I can see why we are sometimes tempted into doing it. However, we have players capable of passing the ball about and when we did against York we looked impressive. The game wasn’t as tough as expected but we did a good job away from home that had the game gone on longer would probably have been a lot more goals. A 3^rd straight clean sheet to take into our upcoming games against Sheff Wed and an extremely tough looking fixture of Watford away.

Jebu out….